His office is focused in four key areas: Equip tactical vehicles with new or existing energy-efficient
technologies; train and educate Marines about more
energy-efficient behaviors like their driving habits;
field more solar and renewable energy sources that
also are lightweight and expeditionary; and improve
tactical energy production and storage to include
hybrid generators, powerful but leaner rechargeable
batteries and harnessed energy.

“We idle our vehicles about 70 percent of the time,”Magnuson said. And “half of that time is spent insidethe wire, where there’s no tactical value whatsoever.”One of the analytical and planning tools the MarineCorps is using is called Joint Operational EnergyCommand and Control, or JOEC2. It uses sensors andcollects data into an energy dashboard with informa-tion that can help commanders and logisticians makedecisions for things such as fuel requests, said Maj.

The idea is to pull vehicle and energy information
from equipment, weapons systems and vehicles — like a
tactical vehicle’s fuel status and power consumption —
and provide the consolidated data to higher headquarters,
Peterson said in a brief about JOEC2. That is a technological leap from the manual steps Marines do with dipsticks
or strings to determine how much fuel remains in a
vehicle or bladder and recording the data in logbooks.

The accuracy and relevance of such information is
fleeting when units are moving and supplies like fuel
quickly get depleted as requests for resupply are processed through the chain of command.

“By the time the data gets to them, it could be a dayor two old,” Peterson said. And human errors lead “toa lower level of confidence.”This, in turn, leads to over-inflated requests forresupply.

“The tendency is just to push more [supplies]forward so they can mitigate the risk,” he said. “Situa-tions like that lead to delivering 4,000 gallons of fuelto a unit that can’t even accept 2,000 gallons of fuel.When that happens, you’re putting extra vehicles onthe road, you’re using more fuel to push fuel that’snot needed and you’re putting operators, Marines, andrisking their lives unnecessarily just to push more fuelTactical vehicles equipped with JOEC2 will automat-ically send their energy-level data that is aggregatedin an energy dashboard at, say, a combat operationscenter. That will increase confidence and cut unneces-sary fuel resupplies, Peterson said, especially importantwhen operating in austere, distributed environments.

U.S.MARINECORPSU.S. Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey aircraft land at the Strategic Expeditionary Landing Field to deliver supplies for Marines participating in SteelKnight 17 Dec. 8. A Marine Corps Energy Capability Exercise held in conjunction with Steel Knight addressed the challenge of ensuring fuel andother vital supplies like food and ammunition flow efficiently from supply ships and aircraft and across longer distances — and potentially dangerousterrain — in the likely future dispersed battlespace.